The end of limousine liberalism?

President Barack Obama is certainly relieved that Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination to be Health and Human Services secretary. That’s another major distraction Obama didn’t need as the 1040 virus continues to take its toll on high-level appointments.

But are Daschle’s tax problems so different from those of Timothy Geithner, who weathered the public relations storm and won Senate approval to become Treasury Secretary? Slate’s Christopher Beam argues yes, there is a qualitative difference between Geithner’s procedural mistake of reporting income incorrectly and Daschle’s substantive mistake of failing to report some income at all.

Beam makes a good point. But perhaps there’s something more going on here.

Americans are growing tired of seeing the rich get all the breaks and receive the benefits of all the bailouts. They take offense at the perception of two sets of rules: one for snobby powerbrokers, another for everyone else.

No one, not even patriotic Americans, enjoys paying taxes on their hard-earned income. Which, along with a tax code that is incomprehensible to the average person, is probably why Geithner was able to skate by.

But not paying taxes on your limousine service or your nannies? That adds an element of class, which Americans resent.

Jonathan Gurwitz

One Response

If Obama keeps nominating people who owe back-taxes, we may eventually raise enough money to pay for the stimulus package. Heh!

Seriously, though, I don’t believe that Daschle or Geithner either one was intentionally trying to avoid paying taxes. I think they just screwed up. Maybe their mistake was depending on other people to figure their taxes for them.

But nevertheless it is the kind of mistake that disqualifies one from high public office today. They made an exception in Geithner’s case because Bush left us in the midst of a huge monetary crisis. One could argue that their is also a healthcare crisis too, but most people are not as alarmed by folks not having health insurance as they are by folks not having jobs.